---
title: "Where to store it"
url: "https://docs.mekodata.ai/guides/where-to-store/"
---

# Where to store it

Choose a memory, a knowledge-base file, or an artifact

A datapack keeps memories, knowledge-base files, and artifacts. Use the one that matches what you need back later.

| You need                           | Store it as                                             | What comes back            |
|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------|
| A fact, preference, or decision    | [Memory](/guides/working-with-memory/)                       | The fact, from a search    |
| Agents to search inside a document | [Knowledge-base file](/guides/working-with-knowledge-bases/) | Passages from the document |
| The original file                  | [Artifact](/guides/working-with-artifacts/)                  | The same file              |

## Memory

Use a memory for a short fact an agent should recall: a preference, a decision, a name, or a constraint.

You store text. Ask the agent to remember it, or let Meko take it from a saved conversation. Search finds it by meaning.

Other members can see the memory in the portal and in the API list. An agent's `memory_search` returns only your memories. Promoting it puts the fact in shared knowledge, which every member's agents can search. See [Learnings](/architecture/core-concepts/learnings/).

## Knowledge-base file

Use a knowledge-base file when agents should search inside a document, such as a runbook, a policy, or a spec.

Meko splits the file into passages and indexes them. Search returns those passages.

Once the file is indexed, every member of the datapack can search it. An owner or a maintainer uploads it, from the portal or from an agent.

## Artifact

Use an artifact when you need the file back whole: a report the agent just wrote, a CSV, a PDF, or generated code.

You get the same bytes back, using a hash. Search does not look inside the file. Any agent in the datapack can fetch it if it has that hash. In the portal, open the datapack and go to **Artifacts** to download it.

On the Free plan, an artifact you do not open for 30 days is hidden until you upload it again. A knowledge-base file does not expire that way. See [When artifacts expire](/guides/working-with-artifacts/#when-artifacts-expire).

## When you need more than one

Upload the document to the knowledge base when agents should search it, and store the same file as an artifact when you also need the original bytes.

Save an artifact's hash as a memory when you need to find that file later by name.